Law Students & Legal Ethics

After taking Professor Knake’s Professional Responsibility course, Michelle Quigley became interested in the ethical obligations related to lawyers’ use of courtroom technology. Professor Knake advised Michelle as she wrote her King Scholar paper on the topic, and helped Michelle secure publication in the Professional Lawyer, an American Bar Association journal. Michelle graduated from the Law College in May 2010. After clerking for the Honorable Gordon J. Quist of the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan, Michelle will join the law firm Miller Johnson. The article, "Courtroom Technology and Legal Ethics: Considerations for the ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20 (PDF)," Professional Lawyer (2010).

Elinor Jordan also took Professor Knake’s Professional Responsibility course, where she became interested in lawyers' free speech and antiterrorism laws. Professor Knake worked with Elly as she wrote her King Scholar paper on the topic. The paper was published as an article by the Berkeley Journal of International Law in 2012, The Constitutionality & Ethics of Licensing Lawyers to Advise Designated Foreign Terror Organizations. After graduating from the Law College, Elly clerked for Judge McKeague of the United State Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Following her clerkship, she joined the law firm Warner Norcross.

While enrolled in Professor Brenner’s Law & Gender seminar, law student Abigail Rury conducted an empirical research project entitled, "I Can Hear You: How Listening to MSU Law Students’ Voices Can Improve the Legal Profession (PDF)." Her research was designed to capture and understand the gendered experiences of law students. Abby graduated from MSU Law in May 2011, and is pursuing her Ph.D. in Higher Education & Student Affairs at the University of Iowa.

As part of Professor Knake’s Topics in PR: The First Amendment and Regulation of Lawyers’ Speech seminar, third-year-law student Danielle Curtiss created a blog to share her research about lawyers’ use of social media and free speech concerns. After graduation, Danielle plans to return to Chicago and pursue a career in criminal defense litigation. Danielle’s posts can be read at A Blog About Blogging: Legal Ethics, Social Media, and the First Amendment.

Another student in Professor Knake's First Amendment seminar, Sarah Primrose, wrote a paper on judicial speech rules that was eventually published as an article by the University of Alabama's Journal of the Legal Profession, When Canaries Won't Sing: The Failure of the Attorney Self-Reporting System in the "Cash-for-Kids" Scheme, 36 J. Legal Prof. 139 (2011). Sarah will be clerking with the Chief Judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Florida.